This month, four people in Moscow, St.
Petersburg, and the Nizhny Novgorod regions were injured as a result of racist
or neo-Nazi violence. The victims were identified as dark-skinned, except one
woman from Central Asia.
As a result, the year-to-date total victims of racist violence are 15 people killed, 70 wounded, and seven receiving death threats. Incidents have been reported in 19 regions of Russia, with the capital cities facing the largest concentration: six dead and 18 wounded in Moscow city proper, three dead and seven wounded in the Moscow Region, and three dead and 20 wounded in St. Petersburg. In other regions, there were four victims. The main targets of attack continue to be Central Asians (8 killed, 17 injured); leftist and youth activists (14 injured); and natives of the Caucasus region (6 killed, 4 injured).
This July, we recorded 13 acts of vandalism which we suspect were xenophobic in nature. The main targets of vandalism continue to be ideological monuments, seven of which were attacked this month. In addition, Jewish (4 cases), Muslim (1 case) and Jehovah's Witness (1 case) sites remain vulnerable.
We also would like to note several violent actions in Moscow held on the night of July 11-12. After all was said and done, there had been an explosion in a prosecutor's office, the attempted arson of a synagogue, multiple neo-Nazi graffiti on a house on Bashilovskaya Street and the Mexican Embassy on Bolshoi Levshinsky Lane. We suspect the activities were related to the July 11 sentencing in a case against the neo-Nazi group NSO-North (NSO – Russian abbreviation for National-Socialist Society).
As such, we have now recorded 45 acts of neo-Nazi vandalism in 20 regions of Russia since the beginning of this year.
At least seven convictions were made in racist violence cases with the court recognizing the hate motive. They were in Moscow and the Moscow Region, Kemerovo, Nizhny Novgorod, the Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk regions, and the Republic of Tatarstan. The most significant was the previously-mentioned ruling against NSO-North in the Moscow District Military Court. The defendants were accused of a series of crimes including 27 murders. In all, 25 people were convicted, five of whom will serve life sentences. Another 14 were sentenced to various prison terms, with another five given suspended sentences.
Considering these numbers, Russian courts have made, to date this year, 35 convictions for violent hate crimes. One hundred and forty-five people have been convicted, with eight receiving life sentences and 77 receiving various prison terms.
Russian courts also delivered seven convictions for xenophobic propaganda in July 2011, in the Altai Territory, the Republics of Altai and Komi, the Khanty-Mansi-Ugra Autonomous Area, and the Kirov and Chelyabinsk regions. In these trials, seven people were convicted, three of whom were sentenced to compulsory community service, one to probation, one a suspended sentence, one fined, and one sentenced to three years in a penal colony (in connection with past crimes).
In all, 43 people have been convicted under 39 xenophobic propaganda rulings since the beginning of the year.
The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated three times this month, by entries 897-918. The List was joined by a number of publications including the ones of Russian National Unity (RNE), issues of “Athanaeum,” “The Body,” and “Russian Will” journals, and publications by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Additionally, the Istarkhov’s book “Smack of the Russian Gods” was added towards the end of the month, though it was already present (entry 289; while entry 289 was reversed by a court decision, it remains on the list).
Thus, the list is currently comprised of 918 entries. Thirty-eight entries have been “cleared” (removed while maintaining the numbering): five due to duplicate entries (mentioned court decision already reflected in the list) and the remaining 33 due to cancellation of extremist status. Thirty-seven entries reflect duplicate judgments on the same materials (not even counting the same materials in different editions). And one entry repeats the same court decision as another in the list.
The Federal List of Extremist Organizations was also updated this month. The National Socialist Initiative (NSI) of the City of Cherepovets, a local public organization, was deemed extremist by the Vologda City Court on 16 May. As such, the official Ministry of Justice website now lists 23 organizations as extremist, though this does not include groups deemed terrorist.
On 6 July, Rossiiskaya Gazeta published the “list of organizations and individuals against whom there is evidence of involvement in extremist activities or terrorism,” prepared by Rosfinmonitoring. The list consists of two parts: foreign (104 organizations and 401 individuals) and Russian (46 institutions and 1,510 individuals). Only a public part of the list was published – the part containing businesses and individuals for or against whom a court has already ruled. The secret part of the list is made up of suspects of extremism and terrorism.
As a result, the year-to-date total victims of racist violence are 15 people killed, 70 wounded, and seven receiving death threats. Incidents have been reported in 19 regions of Russia, with the capital cities facing the largest concentration: six dead and 18 wounded in Moscow city proper, three dead and seven wounded in the Moscow Region, and three dead and 20 wounded in St. Petersburg. In other regions, there were four victims. The main targets of attack continue to be Central Asians (8 killed, 17 injured); leftist and youth activists (14 injured); and natives of the Caucasus region (6 killed, 4 injured).
This July, we recorded 13 acts of vandalism which we suspect were xenophobic in nature. The main targets of vandalism continue to be ideological monuments, seven of which were attacked this month. In addition, Jewish (4 cases), Muslim (1 case) and Jehovah's Witness (1 case) sites remain vulnerable.
We also would like to note several violent actions in Moscow held on the night of July 11-12. After all was said and done, there had been an explosion in a prosecutor's office, the attempted arson of a synagogue, multiple neo-Nazi graffiti on a house on Bashilovskaya Street and the Mexican Embassy on Bolshoi Levshinsky Lane. We suspect the activities were related to the July 11 sentencing in a case against the neo-Nazi group NSO-North (NSO – Russian abbreviation for National-Socialist Society).
As such, we have now recorded 45 acts of neo-Nazi vandalism in 20 regions of Russia since the beginning of this year.
At least seven convictions were made in racist violence cases with the court recognizing the hate motive. They were in Moscow and the Moscow Region, Kemerovo, Nizhny Novgorod, the Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk regions, and the Republic of Tatarstan. The most significant was the previously-mentioned ruling against NSO-North in the Moscow District Military Court. The defendants were accused of a series of crimes including 27 murders. In all, 25 people were convicted, five of whom will serve life sentences. Another 14 were sentenced to various prison terms, with another five given suspended sentences.
Considering these numbers, Russian courts have made, to date this year, 35 convictions for violent hate crimes. One hundred and forty-five people have been convicted, with eight receiving life sentences and 77 receiving various prison terms.
Russian courts also delivered seven convictions for xenophobic propaganda in July 2011, in the Altai Territory, the Republics of Altai and Komi, the Khanty-Mansi-Ugra Autonomous Area, and the Kirov and Chelyabinsk regions. In these trials, seven people were convicted, three of whom were sentenced to compulsory community service, one to probation, one a suspended sentence, one fined, and one sentenced to three years in a penal colony (in connection with past crimes).
In all, 43 people have been convicted under 39 xenophobic propaganda rulings since the beginning of the year.
The Federal List of Extremist Materials was updated three times this month, by entries 897-918. The List was joined by a number of publications including the ones of Russian National Unity (RNE), issues of “Athanaeum,” “The Body,” and “Russian Will” journals, and publications by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Additionally, the Istarkhov’s book “Smack of the Russian Gods” was added towards the end of the month, though it was already present (entry 289; while entry 289 was reversed by a court decision, it remains on the list).
Thus, the list is currently comprised of 918 entries. Thirty-eight entries have been “cleared” (removed while maintaining the numbering): five due to duplicate entries (mentioned court decision already reflected in the list) and the remaining 33 due to cancellation of extremist status. Thirty-seven entries reflect duplicate judgments on the same materials (not even counting the same materials in different editions). And one entry repeats the same court decision as another in the list.
The Federal List of Extremist Organizations was also updated this month. The National Socialist Initiative (NSI) of the City of Cherepovets, a local public organization, was deemed extremist by the Vologda City Court on 16 May. As such, the official Ministry of Justice website now lists 23 organizations as extremist, though this does not include groups deemed terrorist.
On 6 July, Rossiiskaya Gazeta published the “list of organizations and individuals against whom there is evidence of involvement in extremist activities or terrorism,” prepared by Rosfinmonitoring. The list consists of two parts: foreign (104 organizations and 401 individuals) and Russian (46 institutions and 1,510 individuals). Only a public part of the list was published – the part containing businesses and individuals for or against whom a court has already ruled. The secret part of the list is made up of suspects of extremism and terrorism.
